Team Notes: Harvard Set to Open Against No. 15 Union, No. 18 RPI

Photo by Jim Rosvold

Harvard begins its 111th season of men's hockey by facing two ranked league opponents, No. 15 Union Friday and No. 18 Rensselaer Saturday. The opening faceoff for each game is at 7 p.m. at Bright Hockey Center.

Free Tickets (and T-shirts)!
Friday's game is Community Day. Residents of Allston-Brighton and Boston will receive free admission to the game. Present proof of address at the ticket window for your free ticket. The first 250 students in attendance will receive free T-shirts bearing the newly chosen slogan from the Harvard hockey T-shirt slogan contest. Saturday is Kids' Day, with children ages 12 and under gaining free admission.

Follow From Home
Live video of the games, featuring the full, three-camera production for the Bright video board, is available with a Crimson Central subscription on GoCrimson.com. Free live statistics are also available on GoCrimson. WHRB-FM 95.3 and WHRB.org offer live audio. Brendan Roche and Raafi Aldina will have the call.

Behind the Bench
Former Crimson captain, NCAA Frozen Four Most Outstanding Player and 13-year National Hockey League veteran Ted Donato '91 begins his seventh season as The Robert D. Ziff '88 Head Coach for Harvard Men's Ice Hockey. He owns an 91-89-20 record, three ECAC title-game appearances and two NCAA tournament bids.

Coach Donato on Sweden, Union and RPI
Scroll down to view Ted Donato's interview with WHRB's Brendan Roche.

Last Time Out
Ludvig Rensfeldt scored the game-winning goal on a second-period power play as the Swedish National Under-20 Team defeated Harvard, 2-1, in an exhibition Monday night. Kyle Richter (Calgary, Alta.) made 25 saves and Ryan Grimshaw (Rochester, N.Y.) scored for Harvard. Johan Gustafsson recorded 27 saves for the visitors, as the Crimson owned a 28-27 shots edge.

Alex Fallstrom (Stockholm, Swe.) logged an assist against his countrymen, and Marshall Everson (Edina, Minn.) also added a helper. Harvard held a 27-25 advantage in faceoffs, led by Alex Killorn (Montreal, Que.) with a 9-4 record at the dot and Fallstrom with a 5-2 mark.

League Play Gets Underway
All 12 ECAC Hockey teams begin conference play Friday, while Princeton and Yale kick off the Ivy League season in New Haven, Conn.

For Openers
The Crimson is 80-27-3 all-time in official season openers, including a team-record 18 straight opening wins from 1922-39. This is only the third time in 31 years that Harvard is opening the year against an opponent from outside the Ivy League. One of the two previous occasions came in 1991, when the Crimson started off with a 7-5 win against Union. Harvard opened the 2007-08 season at Clarkson, falling, 2-1.

Harvard has won four of its last six home openers and is 20-10-1 in home openers since the opening of Bright Hockey Center in 1979.

Let's Get It Started
Due to Ivy League schedule restrictions and no games last weekend, Harvard is the last of the 58 NCAA Division I men's hockey teams to begin the 2010-11 season. It is the Crimson's latest start to a season since beginning 1998-99 with a 4-1 loss to Brown on Nov. 6.

Experienced Opponents
As Harvard opens its season, Union and RPI enter the weekend having played eight and seven games, respectively.

A Tradition of Excellence
The Crimson has amassed an all-time record of 1,289-822-112 since skating in its first game in 1898. Harvard, which has played in six of the last nine ECAC title games, is seeking its 14th regular‑season league championship and ninth tournament crown this year. The Crimson has also won 21 Ivy League titles and made 21 NCAA appearances, reaching the Frozen Four 12 times.

Crimson Captains
Harvard is led by senior captains Michael Del Mauro (Watchung, N.J.) and Chris Huxley (Weymouth, Mass.) and assistant Kyle Richter.

Del Mauro, a three-time ECAC All‑Academic selection, earned the Angier Trophy as the Crimson's most improved player last season. Huxley has played 85 games on the Harvard blue line and registered 25 points over the past three seasons. Richter was the 2008 winner of the Dryden Award as ECAC Hockey's top goalie and holds Harvard records for games (34), starts (34) and minutes (2,023) in a season.

Returning Statistical Leaders
Five of Harvard's top six scorers return from 2009‑10. Michael Biega (Montreal, Que.) ranked second on the team with 22 points while logging a team-high 15 assists a year ago. Alex Killorn ranked third on the squad with 20 points and nine goals. Conor Morrison (London, Ont.) is the top returning goal-scorer, having netted 10 goals to go with eight assists. Chris Huxley led Harvard defensemen with 13 points, one fewer than forward Daniel Moriarty (Bienfait, Sask.).

Last Year's Opener
The Crimson began 2009-10 with a 5-3 win at Dartmouth behind two goals and an assist from Alex Killorn and 41 saves from Kyle Richter. Marshall Everson and Daniel Moriarty each notched a goal and an assist.

The Bright Stuff
The Crimson is 57-28‑3 (.665) at home under Ted Donato and 279‑121-28 (.685) all-time at Bright Hockey Center, which opened in 1979-80.

Road Warriors
Harvard, which opened the 2009-10 season with five straight road games, is playing its final full home weekend of the semester. The Crimson will play its next four games on the road.

Local Legends
Harvard's prolific "Local Line" of Bill Corkery '73, Bob McManama '73 and Dave Hynes '73 will be inducted into the Massachusetts Hockey Hall of Fame on Wednesday. McManama, a native of Belmont, Mass., centered left wing Hynes of Cambridge and right wing Corkery of Arlington for each of their three seasons on the Crimson varsity squad. They helped Harvard capture the ECAC title and reach the NCAA semifinals as sophomores in 1970-71 and share the ECAC regular-season crown as seniors in 1972-73.

The Crimson posted a 52-16-3 record in those three years as the members of the Local Line totaled 201 goals and 407 points. At the time of their graduation, McManama and Hynes ranked second and third, respectively, on Harvard's career scoring chart and were tied for second all-time in goals at Harvard.

Scouting the Dutchmen
Union, coming off a third-place ECAC regular‑season finish and trip to the league title game, has lost just once, 2-1 at Alaska Oct. 15. The Dutchmen bounced back the next night with a 4-3 win against Alaska-Anchorage and has since beaten 2010 NCAA semifinalist RIT and tied rival Rensselaer.

Union owns the nation's top power play at 43.2 percent (16 for 37). Adam Presizniuk paces the Dutchmen with 15 points and 10 assists, while Jeremy Welsh has 13 points and a team-high six goals. Keith Kinkaid ranks in the nation's top 10 with both his 1.68 goals‑against average and .934 save percentage. Union is coached by former Harvard assistant Nate Leaman.

Harvard vs. Union Series History
Harvard holds a 30-5-3 all-time edge against Union and has lost just twice in the last 18 meetings. Ted Donato is 9-2-1 against the Dutchmen, and the Crimson is 16-2-1 in series meetings at Bright.

Harvard vs. Union in 2009-10
The Crimson swept two games against the nationally ranked Dutchmen. In Schenectady, N.Y., Ryan Carroll (Hackensack, N.J.) made 47 saves to lead Harvard to a 4-1 win over No. 13 Union. Eric Kroshus (Calgary, Alta.) set up Conor Morrison's tying goal and scored the go‑ahead marker himself in the second period.

In the rematch, Alex Killorn netted two goals and Kyle Richter logged 31 saves in a 4-3 win against the No. 16 Dutchmen. Alex Fallstrom had a goal and an assist in each game against Union.

Scouting the Engineers
Rensselaer enters Friday's game at Dartmouth on a six-game unbeaten streak since a season-opening loss at Colorado College. The Engineers are 3-0 at home, but a neutral-site tie with rival Union left them winless in four games away from Troy, N.Y., entering this weekend.

Chase Polacek is the reigning ECAC Hockey Player of the Year. With three goals and a team-high six assists, he shares this year's team scoring lead with top goal-scorer Tyler Helfrich (four goals, five assists). Allen York began the road trip ranked eighth nationally with a 1.79 goals-against average and 13th with a .934 save percentage.